Semiconductor based photovoltaic cells are not efficient in harvesting power from high energy photons since the resulting potential is limited to the band gap between the valence and conduction band of the semiconductor. No semiconductor band gaps exist that match the energy of x-ray and gamma ray photons. A photoelectric cell, on the other hand, uses physical displacement instead of band gap displacement to separate the photon-excited electron from a cathode to an anode. However, photoelectric cells are not very efficient, since the majority of electrons accelerated by the absorption of photons do not leave the cathode and instead just increase the lattice temperature of the cathode. In other words, instead of being ejected out of the cathode in the direction of the anode, the accelerated electron is more likely to go further into the cathode, generating heat in the process. A need exists for a more efficient photoelectric cell.